The present invention relates to a heat exchanger, and more particularly to a flowpath heat exchanger structure that incorporates thermoelectric devices (TE Devices) for electrical power generation.
Hypersonic vehicles having fuel-cooled supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) dual mode engines enable missions such as time critical target service, global reach, responsive space launch, and space mission denial. Because of the propulsion system flowpath environmental conditions, both internally and externally, fuel cooling provides thermal management of the engine flowpath structure since it may not be practical to use air or radiation cooling at hypersonic operating conditions.
Hypersonic vehicles will require electrical power for fuel pumps, drive actuators, and other propulsion and vehicle systems. Low speed systems, such as turbine based propulsion, can generate power while operational, but other power generation systems are required during dual mode scramjet operation. Power generation by conventional methods, such as batteries, expander cycle turbo-generators, and ram-air turbines may be problematic since hypersonic propulsion systems are sensitive to weight, volume and subsystem packaging.